By Pascal Ibe
Claim
An X user, @Goziedragon∅∅7, posted a video clip showing a senior official of the Nigerian Customs who lamented that they gave bags of seized rice to terrorists to save themselves.
The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) is an agency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which operates as an independent customs service under the supervisory oversight of the Nigerian Ministry of Finance, responsible for the collection of customs revenue, facilitation of both national and international trade, anti-smuggling, and border security activities.
The X user claimed that the video was recent.
@Goziedragon∅∅7 shared the video with the caption that reads, “Nigeria customs delivers Bags of Rice to terrorists in Sambisa to sustain them in these difficult times.”
The Sambisa forest, especially the mountainous region of Gwoza near the Cameroon border, is used as shelter by the jihadist Boko Haram group and is believed to be where they keep the hostages from the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping in April 2014.
“You seize the goods from Igbos, then deliver them to terrorists in the bush,” the X user said.
In the 54-second clip, the unnamed senior Customs official lamented that in a bid to save his and the lives of other operatives, “they gave out seven of thirty-seven seized bags of rice to bandits.”
He claimed that the incident happened in a bush in Dutsin-ma.
Dutsin-ma is a Local Government Area in Katsina State, Nigeria’s North-west region.
FACTWATCH Nigeria observed that the video clip, alongside a similar caption, has been shared many times by persons on Facebook and in many WhatsApp groups.
Nigeria has continued to battle terrorism and its related killings in the last 16 years in all the geopolitical zones of the country.
Verification
First, FACTWATCH Nigeria did a keyword research on Google to find out if this clip was a recent one. For instance, we enter the keyword, “Nigeria Customs delivers bags of rice to terrorists”.
Results from the Google search led us to a publication by TheCable, relating to this video in March 2021.
According to the report by TheCable four years ago, Aliyu Mohammed, then coordinator of the sector 4 command, joint border patrol team of the Nigerian Customs in said he had to offer seven bags of seized rice to bandits in exchange for freedom.
Addressing journalists in Katsina, Mohammed said the incident occurred in Dutsinma LGA of the state.
The report stated that Mohammed was commenting on the challenges encountered by the customs officers in the discharge of their duties.
Other Nigerian news organisations that reported this story in 2021 here and here.
Further findings indicated that this video was posted by a television station, TVC Nigeria, in 2021. Watch the original video here.
However, we discovered that the reason for the resurfacing of this clip on social media was because TVC republished this video again as “flashback”, on its YouTube page on 6 November 2/25.
Verdict
The claim that the video of a Nigerian Customs official narrating how the operatives gave bags of rice to bandits happened recently, is MISLEADING. Findings showed that the incident in 2021 in Katsina State, and not the Sambisa forest in Borno State. But the video is circulating again because the TVC republished it recently.
